Frank Lautenberg

Born January 23, 1924, in Paterson, New Jersey, Lautenberg served in the United States Army Signal Corps during World War II. After graduating from Columbia University in 1949 with a degree in Economics, he founded Automatic Data Processing (ADP), the first payroll services company in the U.S.[1] Later, Lautenberg entered public service, first as commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (1978–1982) and then as U.S. Senator. He was elected as a Democrat in 1982 and re-elected in 1988 and 1994.[2] Having chosen not to run in 2000, he was tapped to replace Sen. Robert Torricelli as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in 2002 after the latter's withdrawal due to unethical campaign financing.[3] Lautenberg went on to win election to the Senate for a fourth term.

The Tea Party Republicans in Washington claim they’re concerned about the budget balance, but it’s a disguise! It’s not true! It’s a lie! That’s not what they want. They want — they want other people not to be able to have their own opinions. They don’t deserve the freedoms that are in the Constitution! But we’ll give them to them anyway.[5]

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Frank Lautenberg's claim that Republicans want to outlaw opinions was based on nothing, as noted by Hot Air.[6] According to the Hot Air report, Lautenberg's allowance that he’d give those freedoms to Tea Partiers despite their political views was seen as more offensive than his initial remark.